Jen Pawol is poised to make history as the first female umpire in Major League Baseball during the upcoming matches between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves this weekend. She is scheduled to officiate as the base umpire in Saturday’s doubleheader at Truist Park and as the home plate umpire on Sunday, as confirmed by MLB to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Hailing from New Jersey and aged 48, Pawol previously officiated spring training games in 2024 and this year. Her inclusion in MLB’s officiating crew has been hailed as a significant step towards inclusivity in baseball, with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expressing his support and emphasizing the positive impact it will have on the game.
This landmark moment in MLB comes 28 years after the NBA broke the gender barrier for game officials, a decade after the NFL did the same, and three years after a female referee officiated at the men’s soccer World Cup. Notably, the NHL has yet to include any women as on-ice officials.
Pawol made history in 2024 by becoming the first woman to umpire big league spring training games since Ria Cortesio in 2007. Cortesio, who spent nine years in the minor leagues, paved the way for Pawol’s achievement. Pawol’s sporting background includes being an all-state softball and soccer player in New Jersey, excelling at West Milford High School, and later representing the USA Baseball women’s national baseball team in 2001 during her time at Hofstra on a softball scholarship.
Following her successful sports career, Pawol pursued further academic achievements, obtaining a master’s degree while residing in the Binghamton area of New York and taking teacher certification classes at Elmira College. Reflecting on her journey, Pawol mentioned that she was driven to pursue umpiring after feeling unsatisfied following her competitive playing career.
Transitioning from officiating NCAA softball from 2010-2016, Pawol’s umpiring journey led her to attend an MLB umpire tryout camp in 2015, where she was selected to train at the Umpire Training Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. Subsequently, she began officiating in the Gulf Coast League in 2016, marking the start of her professional umpiring career.
In the realm of sports officiating, other notable female pioneers include Violet Palmer as the NBA’s first woman referee in 1997, Shannon Eastin as the NFL’s first female on-field official in 2012, Sarah Thomas as the NFL’s first regular woman on-field official in 2015, Stephanie Frappart as the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup game in 2022, and Rebecca Welch as the first referee in England’s Premier League in 2023.
Currently, MLB employs 76 full-time staff umpires and utilizes substitute umpires to fill in for vacancies created by injuries and scheduling conflicts.